On 7 May a small detachment of infantry arrived from General Macdonald who had been ambushed by the Tibetans at the Karo Pass, nearly 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of Gyantse, where four of the men had been killed and thirteen badly wounded.

"[12] There were even rumours that the Khory Buryat Gelug priest Agvan Dorzhiev, born not far from Ulan-Ude, east of Lake Baikal,[13] then under Russian control, was in charge of the Lhasa arsenal or even directing operations at Gyantse.

[16] Also on 28 June, the nearby "seemingly impregnable" Tsechen Monastery and Dzong was stormed shortly before sunset, after a heavy bombardment by a ten-pound artillery gun.

Brigadier-General Macdonald, who had just arrived that day, concluded that Tsechen, which guarded the rear of the Gyantse Dzong, would have to be cleared before the assault could begin.

[17] An assault was therefore made on the Gyantse fortress on 5 July and, the following day, after a spirited defence by the Tibetans which lasted until sometime after 2 pm, a heavy artillery bombardment blew a hole in the wall followed by a direct hit on the powder magazine, causing a large explosion after which some Gurkha and British troops manage to climb the rock face, scramble inside, and capture the fort in spite of a heavy hail of boulders and stones thrown down upon them by the few defenders left on what remained of the walls.

[20] [21] The dead Tibetan defenders were "lying in heaps," and it took a major effort using prisoners of war to move all the bodies away for burial.

For several days the sappers were kept busy demolishing what remained of the fortifications at Gyantse, Tsechen and other places, often coming across hidden stores in the process.

[23] Gyantse is often referred to by Chinese government as the "Hero City" because of the determined resistance displayed by the Tibetans defenders against a far superior force.